Harrogate True Blues, now in its eighteenth season, owes its foundation to Les Harrow and Angus Mansfield who renewed their acquaintance from their native Scotland. They realised that instead of fans travelling to Ibrox in cars or by train, it would be far better to travel as a group.

The initial interest shown in the Summer of 1993 was most encouraging with word quickly passing round the small groups and publicity in Rangers News. Les took on the role of Chairman, a position he still holds today.

The club's inaugural trip was to Sunderland on 28 July 1993. The occasion was a pre-season friendly billed as a testimonial for Gary Bennett. The game finished in a 3–1 win for Rangers with goals coming from Mark Hateley (2) and David Hagen. A large contingent of Rangers fans swelled the attendance to almost 22,000.

Ten days later the next trip was to Rangers' opening league fixture of the 92/93 season - in the midst of that famous 9 in a row. The result was a 2-1 home victory and again the scorers were Hateley and Hagen.

In the early seasons membership numbers were around 100 and it was not unusual to have a full bus of around 50 Bears. Current membership is around 60.
Down the years the membership has been made up largely of ex-patriot Scots supplemented by a fair sprinkling of Yorkshire folk who have adopted Rangers as their team.

End of season functions have been popular with visits by ex players such as Eric Caldow and Stuart McCall.

The mainstay of the club in recent times has been Secretary Andy Kerr whose exceptional ability to arrange travel and organise tickets is appreciated by all.

A 50 seater coach runs to all Saturday/Sunday home games. It starts at Leeds with pick-ups at Knaresborough, Leeming on the A1 and Scotch Corner.

There is a high content of season ticket holders in the regular party but individual match day tickets are also available through the club.
A hard core of about 25 Bears travel to nearly every weekend home game usually joined by around another 10 who for their own reasons are more selective in their choice of games. For midweek and away games we team up into carloads.

Anyone wishing to travel should contact :-

The more notice we get the easier it is to arrange tickets.
Accompanied juveniles are welcome with much reduced fares.

John

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